If You Could Rediscover Anime
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| Seeing the Dog Days heroes back in action, really makes my day! |
Do you remember your first anime? Have you thought of the time when you found a series that captured your heart? If you could wipe your mind clean of anime, just to see it again for the first time, would you do it? Many people would answer yes in a heartbeat, but I think it's a question that you really have to think about. Would you really want to start over, or would you like to continue the way things are now?
For me, I don't think I would exactly chose to start over. I think the way I was introduced to anime was great, so the chances of that happening again are very slim. When I started anime, there was less control over what I could watch. Series such as Dragon Ball Z, Yugioh, Digimon, and even Sailor Moon were shown via TV and sold as video tapes, but it wasn't easy to find others outside of this list. Many were also edited and removed of many hints to Japanese culture or language.
As I got older, I found more anime and started watching ones in the Japanese language. I'm the type of person who likes both dubs and subs, so I don't really mind either, but it was a completely different experience watching in Japanese. I started with Naruto and later branched over to a series known as Vampire Knight, getting a taste of both Shonen and Shojo at the same time.
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| Suzuka was a Funimation favorite of mine! |
Funimation eventually became a TV channel, and most of my anime watching started to come from them. I would see anime when I was in bed, when I woke up, and when I was getting home from school. I had a constant intake of different genres on a daily basis and it was great. The series would also constantly change over time, with a few leaving the network and others being added. Not only did this get me used to anime, I got to experience watching a large amount of dubs, which made me more open-minded towards the whole dubs vs subs debate.
Most importantly though, was the fact that a lot of anime related to things that were going on in my life. When I think about those old series that started my anime career, I picture fond memories that go along with each one. While those memories were not always good, they are precious memories that I can fortunately recall through a common medium.
So I do not think I would like to rediscover anime again. We live in a different time now, even though it's just been a couple of years, anime is much easier to access in the western world now. In fact, you can pick and choose whatever anime you wish, as I mentioned in my article regarding our control of what we watch.
Still, I can understand why someone would want to start things over again. Perhaps reliving an old series again with no prior memory of the plot is an appealing offer. Others may want to make new memories of a series if something came along the way and ruined the one that they currently have. There's many reasons, more than I can think of.
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| Many anime fans have the memory of Dragon Ball Z and Goku's Spirit Bomb. Imagine if we lost that memory! |
So while this is focused a lot on my thoughts, I would love to hear yours as well. If given the opportunity, would you give up your knowledge of anime and the memories you have associated with it, just to rediscover it in a different light and time? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Also, I would love to get input on posts like this. Instead of examining a topic, I thought it'd be nice to do a post on a question, and my response to the question. Not only is this a good idea to get my opinion out, you all can share your opinions as well. If you want to see more posts like these, again, let me know!
Thank you for reading!
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I probably wouldn't enjoy anime on the same level I do now. Gone are the days where I had anime cherry-picked for me, and they the most widely varying and captivating shows out there, like Astroboy, Dragonball, Yamato, even Mysterious Cities of Gold. The number of good anime probably hasn't decreased, but I wouldn't have had the patience to search for the good ones. I quickly tired of rote formulas in my North American TV, so if I had access to the same glut of anime I do now, I would have probably tired of it just as quickly. Now even anime for teenagers and young adults seems to be watering itself down for the lowest common denominator, and I'm hard-pressed to find anything like I saw when I was that age. Sure, some exist, but it doesn't cater to my tastes as well as anime did. New generation, new tastes. They're not mine. Perhaps if the "me" we're talking about was a product of the same upbringing, I might. But then I hesitate to say that I would be "me" :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting!
DeleteYeah, the same thing goes for me. I find it harder to find anime I like now ironically, even though there's more that are open to me. When I was provided anime, I liked almost everything I watched to a certain extent. It's funny how things work that way huh?
That thought is a little scary to consider, it kind of reminds me of Tada Banri's situation in Golden Time. (I won't spoil anything if you haven't seen it.) Basically if you lost your memory, the thing and memories that shaped you would be gone, allowing you to be a completely new you. Although this could go good and you could become a better person from it, things could also go the other way. Since anime has obviously shaped quite a few of us, it's a scary thought.
Apologies if I interpreted what you said differently, but that was the first thing that came to my mind!
I was supposed to say Dragonball... but I guess it was really Sailor Moon. I remember my brother and I role-playing as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon. I grabbed a blanket and used it to imitate the hair buns of Usagi.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting!
ReplyDeleteI feel like Dragon Ball/Z has a place in everyone's childhood memories, at least mostly over here.
Haha, I used to really like Sailor Moon when I was young as well. I haven't done too much looking into the remake though. I did a similar thing with Naruto, imitating the ninja run, learning hand signs, using "rasengan." I wonder what I would have done throughout my late elementary school days to now, without it.
I don't know about starting over since I am deep into the rabbit hole by now.... I do remember my first serie that I knew it was 'anime' and that was Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OAV. Watched it dubbed on VHS tapes that I tried hard to find in my local rental shops. I loved the feeling that I watched something quite different from American cartoons, something with more details visuals, more than just an action or comedy story, and in the words of a junior classmate in high school, "When people looked like people." I also started on Sailor Moon and Dragonball also, but I still remember Tenchi Muyo as the eact starter point for me back in 1997.
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